Korn at the Sound Academy, Toronto – Gig review

Who: Korn with Love and Death and Asking Alexandria
Where: Sound Academy
When: Monday 30 September 2013
One Word: Banging

Korn hit up the Sound Academy with openers Love and Death and Asking Alexandria Monday night (Sept. 30), rocking the rather tame crowd with tightly-run sets and minimal fuss in between songs.

The night kicked off with Love and Death, a re-vamped version of Korn guitarist Brian “Head’ Welch’s solo music project. They sounded like a grittier version of Korn with more screaming vocals and got a warm reception from concert goers, who danced particularly hard to the band’s closing song, “Chemicals.”

British metalcore outfit Asking Alexandria hit the stage next. Lead singer Danny Worsnop’s vocals were particularly impressive as he seamlessly switched from singing to screaming at the top of his lungs. Unfortunately, the band’s otherwise solid performance was marred by a muddy sound mix, unlike Love and Death and Korn’s clean audio. As well, Worsnop spent half of the set referring to the audience as “Montreal,” not realizing his mistake until bassist Sam Bettley tapped him on the shoulder while Warsnop (unsuccessfully) tried to organize the crowd into a Wall of Death.

The crowd only started to get a little rough when headliners Korn finally took the stage, who put on a show you’d expect from a band who’s been around since 1993 – clean playing and vocals, just the right amount of theatrics and a killer set list. Complete with a cage behind the band holding a group of fans and lead singer Jonathan Davis’ signature mic stand, the nu-metal heavyweights played for nearly an hour and a half, touching on old favourites like “Y’All Want a Single” and “Blind” as well as newer material like the dubstep-tinged “Narcissistic Cannibal” and their latest single, “Never Never.” Other highlights included a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” and the song that saw the most action out of an audience that mostly danced in place and head-banged, concert-closer “Freak on a Leash.”

It’s a shame that the show landed right at the beginning of the week, because even though it was almost sold out, the quality of the acts could probably have filled a larger venue and deserved an even larger audience. The next time any of the bands come through, especially Korn, I’d definitely recommend checking them out.